I agree with you to a point. You mentioned that out of 20, 5 may be knowledgeable. What's to stop the other 15 from picking up a book, reading product manuals, reading the brochures from the manufacturers, or going on CNET or any other product site to learn the basics? When I was 16 working at Best Buy I did this. I took all the training videos home. I read everything they gave me and more on my own. I asked the more experienced sales people questions. I did what it took to keep my job and to be the most knowledgeable. I don't think it's too much to ask of a salesperson, regardless of commission or regular pay, to do the same. It's true that commission is a great incentive as I mentioned above, but people should still take an interest in what they sell.
“An engineer explained to us that hundreds of ear impressions were gathered in the name of research, and while each one obviously boasted its own unique shape and size, one single characteristic remained uniform across the board: the entrance into the ear canal is not a perfect circle, it's an oval.”
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I agree with you to a point. You mentioned that out of 20, 5 may be knowledgeable. What's to stop the other 15 from picking up a book, reading product manuals, reading the brochures from the manufacturers, or going on CNET or any other product site to learn the basics? When I was 16 working at Best Buy I did this. I took all the training videos home. I read everything they gave me and more on my own. I asked the more experienced sales people questions. I did what it took to keep my job and to be the most knowledgeable. I don't think it's too much to ask of a salesperson, regardless of commission or regular pay, to do the same. It's true that commission is a great incentive as I mentioned above, but people should still take an interest in what they sell.